Police: Wisconsin death has Lefkow tie

Tribune staff reports

Police this afternoon confirmed a Chicago man who shot himself in the head during a traffic stop in Wisconsin had a suicide note claiming responsibility for last week's slayings of U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow's husband and mother.

But they stopped short of saying Bart Rossan Albany Park man in his late 50s whose neighbors said was embittered over his perceived mistreatment at the hands of doctors, lawyers and judgeswas the killer of Michael Lefkow and Donna Humphrey.

"We're satisfied there is information in the letter that would point to Ross being in the Lefkow house that day" of the slayings, Chicago police Supt. Phil Cline said. The note, Cline indicated, went into details "that were not out in the media."

But the superintendent added, "While we do characterize (Wednesday) night's developments as significant, we are not prepared at this time to definitely say any one person is responsible for these homicides. This case is by no means closed."

Cline spoke at an afternoon news conference to discuss the latest developments in the Lefkow investigation.

Investigators also recovered a second note from Ross' older-model Plymouth minivan that recounted the man's court dealings stemming from a medical condition, Cline said.

He refused to comment on reports the note was, essentially, a hit list of people who had crossed Ross. Sources said the note named five judges from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, three or four U.S. District Court judges and the names of several lawyers who represented Ross in lawsuits.

Judge had dismissed Ross' lawsuit

Court documents show that in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Chicago, Ross blamed doctors for a medical procedure allegedly gone awry and lawyers and the courts for failing to give him relief. Lefkow dismissed the suit last September.

Other court records show Cook County sheriff's deputies attempted to serve Ross a notice of eviction from his home in the 4500 block of North Bernard Avenue on the city's Northwest Side on Feb. 28the day Lefkow's husband and mother were shot execution-style .

DNA evidence and fingerprints are being analyzed at state and FBI crime labs to see if Ross can be connected to the crime scene, Cline said.

"We are currently searching Bart Ross' home for any physical evidence that points us to last week's double homicide," Cline said.

"We are attempting to learn as much as we possibly can about Bart Ross' historywho he was, who he was associated with and what he was doing in the days leading up to and following the Lefkow murders."

Cline urged anyone with information about Ross to call the police hotline, 311, if calling from Chicago or 312-744-5000 if calling from outside the city.

Ross was one of a number of individuals investigators intended to look at, Cline said. "His name was on the list of cases that Judge Lefkow had handled, and the task force was scheduled to interview him," he said.

Asked if Ross may have acted alone, Cline said, "At this point, we cannot find anyone else connected with him."

Man may fit witness' description

The police superintendent also confirmed investigators' theory Ross may have been one of two suspicious individuals seen outside the Lefkow residence the day of the killings. They were depicted in composite sketches released by police.

"The one composite of the older gentlemen we feel is the composite our witness saw of Mr. Ross leaving the Lefkow house sometime in the early afternoon, sometime around 1 p.m." on Feb. 28, Cline said.

Sources said investigators recovered a stocking cap and coveralls from Ross' vehicle similar to those described by an eyewitness.

Also today, WMAQ-Ch. 5 in Chicago said it received a handwritten letter, signed Bart A. Ross, in which the writer describes breaking into the house of Lefkow around 4:30 a.m., Feb. 28, with the intent to kill her and anyone else.

The writer said he waited all day in a utility room in the basement and shot the judge's husband after he discovered the writer in hiding, according to WMAQ. The writer said he then shot Lefkow's mother after she heard the gunshot and called out to her son-in-law.

The writer said he stayed in the house until about 1:45 p.m. before leaving. Judge Lefkow came home hours later and discovered the two bodies.

Police sources said they believed the letter was legitimate.

Traffic stop leads to Ross' death

Earlier today, at a news conference in the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis, Police Chief Dean Puschnig detailed the traffic stop about 5 p.m. Wednesday that ended with Ross' death.

A West Allis police officer spotted a minivan with Illinois license plates parked near a school and became suspicious. When the van's driver suddenly made an illegal U-turn and drove away, the officer followed. A short distance away, the officer saw the van's taillight was not working and pulled the vehicle over.

As the officer approached the van, a single gunshot rang out. Sources said Ross had shot himself in the head with a 9mm handgun.

"We towed the vehicle back to the police garage, and while conducting a standard inventory search, our investigators discovered some material that led us to believe this man could be involved or had some vital information to the Lefkow homicide investigation," Puschnig said.

Sources said that beside the notes, police found in the vehicle about 300 .22-caliber shells. Investigators found three casings of the same caliber in the Lefkow home this week.

Investigators also said they should have enough physical evidence, including DNA, a fingerprint and other items from the crime scene, to make a definitive comparison.

The latest version of the suit named as defendants the hospital, several doctors and other individuals, the U.S. government, State of Illinois and a Chicago law firm. Ross was representing himself, indicating he could not find a lawyer willing to take his case.

The litigation stemmed from medical treatment Ross had received starting in July 1992 that the plaintiff said resulted in the loss of part of his lower jaw.

Ross said he had been unable to work for all but four months since 1992 and had lost his house and 12 years of his life. In one filing, he called the defendants "violators of my constitutionally guaranteed civil rights" and likened them to "Nazi style criminals" and Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda.

The suit was ruled against twice before Lefkow dismissed it on a technicality in September 2004.

"As his legal remedies were becoming fewer, as he had less success, he became more angry, more agitated,'' said Thomas Browne, a former Ross attorney.

Ross also was the subject of eviction proceedings from his home on the 4500 block of North Bernard Avenue. He had once owned the house, but had sold it and was renting it.

Sheriff's deputies attempted to serve Ross with a notice of eviction three times in the last two weekson Feb. 28 and March 1 and 3, according to sheriff's spokesman Bill Cunningham. Ross was not home those days.

A quiet man with a scary dog

Ross emigrated from Poland in 1982 as Bartlomiej Ciszewski, changed his name and became a U.S. citizen in 1988, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.

His home today was surrounded with police tape as animal control officers removed a dog from the residence and a Chicago police officer and FBI agent canvassed the block for information about Ross.

Neighbors said Ross was a quiet man who lived alone with his dog. A resident of the block for the last 14 years, Ross had not been seen for several weeks, and some were concerned about his well being.

Jinky Jackson, 34, who lives one house down from Ross, told the Associated Press that Ross was wearing a neck brace as of a month ago. She said she would say hello to Ross when she saw him, but he would not say hello back to her.

"He doesn't mingle with other neighbors,'' Jackson said. "He'd come home late and stay inside.''

Jennifer Fernandez, 45, another neighbor and a member of the North Bernard Street Block Association, said Ross had attended a block meeting about six or seven years ago.

"He wanted us to sign a petition for his lawsuit. It was some kind of medical malpractice suit," Fernandez said. "After he left the meeting, we all seemed to think he had a chip on his shoulder."

Fernandez said she and her children tried to stay away from Ross.

"He's got a pretty scary dog," she said. "When we would go that way, we would make a wide berth when we walked by."

Ross was last seen on the block about a week and a half ago, when he asked neighbors to watch his pets, Fernandez said.

Probe continues at Lefkow home

If the man's suicide note is true, the Lefkow investigation, which had been moving toward the organization tied to jailed white supremacist Matthew Hale, will have ended in a starkly different realm.

As investigators combed the murder scene again Wednesday, federal authorities were using bullets recovered from the bodies in an attempt to pinpoint the make and model of the murder weapon.

The bullets and casings have created a puzzle for investigators.

An early examination of unique markings on the bullets indicated the weapon could be a .22-caliber revolver, some familiar with the tests said, while other investigators said it could be another type of firearm. Indications the weapon might be a revolver raises more questions, investigators said, because true revolvers do not eject casings.

One theory was that the casings could have been dropped in the reloading of a very small handgun that holds only one or two rounds, investigators said.

Two casings were found just after the bodies of Michael Lefkow and Humphrey were discovered. One was located under one of the bodies, sources have said, and the other was found behind papers on a low shelf of books.

The third was found in the basement of the home on Tuesday after investigators returned to the home in a new, intense round of evidence gathering, according to sources.

Technicians have removed a significant amount of evidence from the Lefkow home in the last two days, sources said. Investigators took search dogs through the home on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, several doors were removed from the house to be examined for trace evidence. Pieces removed from the house were being analyzed at the Chicago police crime lab, investigators said.

Major evidence analyzed in the last several days has not produced information to break the case. Neither DNA collected from a cigarette butt left in the sink of the house nor a fingerprint found on a broken window have led to a suspect.

Both the genetic profile and fingerprint have been run through national databases, but no matches were found. Members of the task force of Chicago police detectives and federal agents were continuing to chase hundreds of tips Wednesday. By this time, their task force had swelled to as many as 300 investigators.

Officials also hoped a $50,000 reward being offered in the case might draw someone forward.

Also Wednesday, Glenn Greenwald, a New York attorney who had represented Hale in several past civil lawsuits, said Hale's mother asked him to pass a clearly coded message from Hale to a follower about 2 to 2½ months ago.

Greenwald said he declined to deliver the message because he didn't understand what Hale meant in the note.